According to the document FR-A-2,492,769, a container of the abovementioned type has been described comprising a hollow parallelepipedal body intended to store a fluid, and a pouring tube connected to said body by its upper face and on the side of its front face. This pouring tube incorporates, at the level at which it joins the storing body, a pivoting or articulation means consisting of a series of outer annular grooves centered on the axis of the tube and forming a bellows. This pivoting means enables the tube to be articulated between a stored position, folded down against the top wall of the storing body and as it were within the volume of the container, and a use position, corresponding to the molding position, in which said tube is raised by approximately 90.degree. relative to the stored position.
Such containers prove to be inconvenient to use. Indeed, when the liquid is being poured, the tube must be held constantly with one hand in order to prevent its sudden and unexpected elastic return in the event of a wrong movement. Such an elastic return may have unpleasant consequences for the user, as may be readily imagined when the product contained is oil or any soiling or corrosive product.
The document DE-A-3,104,561 describes a cap with a pouring spout which is made as a single piece from a thermoplastic material and is suited more particularly to disposable plastic containers. The pouring spout forms, together with the rest of the cap, a means for pivoting between a closed position, folded down into a corresponding housing of the cap, and a use position, corresponding to the molding position, in which the pouring spout is raised angularly by approximately 90.degree. relative to said closed position. According to this document, the pouring spout has two lateral faces facing each other and separated by two faces, one straight and inside in the closing direction, and the other convex and outside in the closing direction. The pivoting means has, on the outer side, a plastic hinge at the joint between the convex face and the body of the cap, and a thin wall situated in the extension of the straight wall, beneath the hinge, capable of rolling and folding up on itself for each closing, with the aid of fold-initiating lines arranged parallel to the hinge above each other; these initiating lines meet, on the lateral faces, a common axis situated beneath the hinge.
Such a solution, which is very specific to pouring caps, may not be extrapolated or applied to the containers envisaged by the present invention, and more particularly to their pouring tubes, for several reasons.
Given the size of a pouring tube, as compared to a simple pouring spout, it is impossible to envisage using a thinner wall at the level of the pivoting means, which would make the pouring spout brittle relative to the repeated stresses to which the user subjects it.
Such a pouring spout in any case supposes the use of intrinsically pliable or flexible thermoplastic materials and excludes the use of relatively rigid materials such as those which are desired for containers with relatively large dimensions.
Lastly, the rolling of the thin wall up on itself each time the pouring spout is closed gives rise to active friction of the plastic on itself, and therefore to wear of the latter. A break in the plastic material, and therefore unrepairable damage to the pivoting means, may thus result rapidly Although this may be acceptable for a container of the disposable type, having the pouring spout in question, this is less readily acceptable for a container such as that envisaged by the present invention.